Growing unease has emerged among Fianna Fail deputies about the Government's intention to join Partnership for Peace within a month without a referendum.
Wicklow TD Mr Dick Roche said yesterday he favoured a referendum, bringing to five the number of backbenchers who have expressed opposition to the Government's plan.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, intends to propose a "presentation document" to Cabinet before the end of this month outlining the extent of Ireland's intended involvement in the NATO-sponsored programme. That document will then be put to the Dail for approval, following which Ireland will formally sign up for PfP.
However, opposition to joining without a referendum is expected to be voiced at a Fianna Fail parliamentary party meeting within the next few weeks, before the Dail vote takes place.
Senior party sources acknowledge that a number of backbenchers are unhappy about the plan to proceed without the referendum, which was promised in the 1997 Fianna Fail general election manifesto. However, they say they believe Fianna Fail's TDs will all support the Government motion in the Dail.
One of the four independents who traditionally vote with the Government, Ms Mildred Fox, has also said she favours a referendum. However, with Fine Gael supporting PfP involvement and believing a referendum is unnecessary, the Government is unlikely to face any difficulty getting Dail approval for its stance.
Mr Roche said he personally favoured a referendum if only to ensure the party was seen to fulfil an election promise. "If there was a referendum I would campaign in favour of joining," he said. "There was probably no need for a referendum, but if you promise it you have to have it." Abandoning the referendum pledge would increase cynicism about politics.
A source close to former Taoiseach Mr Albert Reynolds was quoted in yesterday's Sunday Business Post as saying he also favoured a referendum.
Wexford TD Mr John Browne told South East Radio last week: "I feel we gave a promise to have a referendum. We should proceed with the referendum and let the people decide because certainly there are a lot of mixed views about the PfP."
He said there was a lot of dissatisfaction within the Fianna Fail parliamentary party "at the stance been taken by the hierarchy of the Government, and that view has been made known and will continue to be made known to the Taoiseach and the other members of our cabinet".
Four months ago Mr Ivor Callely TD wrote to a constituent saying he had raised the issue in the ail parliamentary party and had sought that a referendum be held. "This is a strong line I have held on this matter and I will continue to do so," he wrote.
His Dublin North Central constituency and party colleague, Mr Sean Haughey, wrote to the same constituent saying he too had raised the matter at the parliamentary party and expressed "grave reservations" in relation to the suggestion that Ireland should join PfP. Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Proinsias De Rossa MEP, yesterday claimed Fianna Fail was "increasingly divided" on the issue. He called again for a consultative plebiscite on PfP. Labour has tabled a private member's bill to enable the holding of such a plebiscite, and this may be debated within a few weeks.
"The number of Fianna Fail deputies now openly in support of holding a plebiscite on our application for membership of PfP is clearly growing," he said. "Obviously they set greater store on their pre-election commitments than the Government itself. They obviously recall the current Taoiseach stating that any other approach would be `fundamentally undemocratic'."
Last night the Dun Laoghaire branch of Ogra Fianna Fail called for a referendum "in light of our 1997 election manifesto promises to the people of Ireland". The branch called on the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs to explain the party's "U-turn".